Travis woke up with a start, gasping and drenched in sweat. Then someone grabbed his hand.
"AH!" He jumped. Pulling his hand away before realizing it was Taylor. "God damn sis, did you have to scare me like that?"
"Last I checked my brother wasn't so jumpy. Whats got you out of sorts?"
"Yeah man, whats going on with you?" Suddenly Justin spoke.
Travis looked around and saw that not only his sister, but all of his friends were there too. Seeing the confusion on his face Kiara laughed, and Victor smiled.
"That's right Travis, you woke up last. You lost which means you're buying all of us a round tonight." Victor said, the smile never leaving his face.
"Now hold on, we do need to talk, but first when the hell did I agree to that?"
Kiara jumped in, finally having calmed down from laughing. "You agreed to it right after you agreed to buy us all new houses. But what do we need to talk about?"
Travis took a shaky breath, and told them of his ability, and his visions.
"Wait, you mean to say im going to lose an arm AND an eye? And who were the people around me?" Justin asked
"And I'm going to get hung on a piece of rebar like a corpse in a butcher's shop?" Victor chimed in.
Then Taylor jumped in too. "I lose a leg and get stabbed? Also why does Kiara get a whole army and I get four measly soldiers?"
"Im not too upset about mine to be honest." Kiara said. "After the augmentations, I feel like I could take a whole army on and win."
"And what city were you watching burn? Was it one of ours, or one of theirs?"
"Guys I wish I had answers for you but I don't. The future has so many possibilities that past maybe a week the future gets so complex and convoluted that trying to find a single vision is like trying to find a specific drop of water in an ocean. You might be able to do it but it'll be more luck than anything else. On top of that multiple different paths can lead to the same outcome, meaning if I found it and avoided the choices to get there we could still end up there anyway."
Justin sighed. "Dude I mean only a tiny bit of offense when I say this. You're a shitty oracle."
"That's cause I'm NOT an oracle." He turned to Taylor. "So, Tay, what now?"
She looked at him with exasperation, clearly not happy about the topic change, but she knew he was right, they did have other stuff to do after all. "Ok, Trav, go put some real clothes on. After that go out to the front of the building, the rest of us will be waiting in a truck."
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Travis walked out of the building, which he had discovered was the 75th army headquarters, and jumped into the truck. Victor and Justin closed the gate behind him. As they sat down, Travis realized that they had all gained about a foot or so of height.
"Woah, you guys got taller!"
Justin looked at him with a blank expression, like his brain had short circuited. Victor laughed. "You just noticed now?"
Kiara joined in the laughing. "At least we know who NOT to send on scouting missions."
Justin shook his head, clearly amazed that the man who could see the future hadn't noticed something so blatantly obvious right in front of his face. "Dude your lack of awareness amazes me."
○○○
Taylor drove them to a building near the outskirts of the base. It was a three story building on the left side, one story on the right. It looked rather unremarkable, as long as you ignored the 5 massive cannons sticking out the top.
As they got out, Travis turned to Taylor. "Tay, is that a mass driver?"
She smiled. "Yeah, apparently it can fire rounds 2 meters wide. Its practically a missile launcher."
"Jesus, why aren't we putting those on the front?" Justin asked.
Before Taylor could answer, Victor chimed in. "Dude, those things have to be wicked expensive, and with the rate we're losing ground, it would be like gift wrapping it for the divine powers. Besides, I bet that thing could hit the front from here just fine."
Taylor had a mischievous glint in her eyes. "Oh it can hit much more than the front. There isn't a place on earth this thing can't hit. But enough about that, let's head inside.
They walked through the double doors and found a hallway that went to the left and right. Taylor pointed to the left. "The barracks are down this hall. Each of the rooms has the name of the occupant on the door. Women are on the first floor, men on the second and third. Lets head this way so you can put your bags in your rooms, then we can continue with our tour."
After searching for a bit, Travis found his room. It was maybe 100 square feet. Inside was a bed, a simple wardrobe, and a bathroom. On the left side was a silver tube in the wall. It looked like it opened, but Travis couldn't figure out how to make it open. 'Well whatever' He thought. 'I'm sure they'll tell me later.' He put his bags on his bed and headed back downstairs, where Kiara was waiting with Taylor.
"You finished that quickly." Travis said to Kiara.
"Yeah," she replied. "My room is right next to Taylor's, so didn't have to search around for my room."
"Must be nice, we had to search two whole floors for ours." Victor's voice called from behind Travis.
"Mine is on the third floor dude." Justin said, clearly just a little salty.
"Alright let's head to supply to get your stuff." Taylor said, cutting off the conversation before it could spiral too far.
They walked down the corridor, and headed off towards supply.